Newsletter

Letters to the Editor Saturday

The political class in Washington is lurching from one “crisis” to another like a drunk on the deck of a heaving ship.

They raise each one to the level where something must be done immediately and is so dire that only they can solve them. All of these magical solutions have one thing in common: They decrease your freedom and your options and increase their power and control.

The crisis du jour is gun control. The same laws that did nothing in the 1990s are back for a reprise.

Banning rifles with bayonet lugs and flash suppressors? I guess that solves the drive-by bayoneting problem. Banning high capacity magazines is a joke; the magazine can be changed in a couple of seconds.

The obscene violence in video games and movies seems to be a factor in these attacks. Last year, $70 billion was spent on advertising, $4 million for a 30-second Super Bowl ad and they continue to say television and movies don’t affect our behavior. Censorship isn’t the answer, but letting children marinade in this filth is wrong.

I don’t know exactly how to prevent gun violence, but I know this law won’t work.

A local judge recently sentenced a convicted felon to 10 years in prison for possession of a firearm. That’s a good start.

MARK LANIER

Tybee Island

Ending political parties will eliminate gridlock

There was an interesting letter on your editorial page of Feb. 26 from Chuck Altabas with his suggestion to remove party labels after political candidates’ names.

I would like to take an additional step forward and eliminate all parties.

Let’s vote for the individuals by what you know or can learn about them and how they compare with our own beliefs.

We could then have a single primary election and select the top two to run in the general election.

The representatives and senators can then sit together in their respective chambers and exchange ideas among themselves that will minimize the stalemates that we now have in the Congress.

At present, we are like a giant ship with separate crews aboard who cannot decide which way to go, and the captain has appeared to have left the ship and it is about to run aground. There is no one there to bring the crews together so they can take the proper course of action.

When it does go aground, the captain blames the crew.

Our country is going “aground” and our news media is not concerned. We need to take action before it is too late.

RICHARD LEECH

Richmond Hill

President and Congress reveal their ineptitude

I believe Dr. Nicholas Mangee’s observation as to the downstream effects of sequestration is knowledgeable and accurate (“Economic sequester: The price we’ll pay,” Feb. 27).

Sequestration is an act borrowed from the brinkmanship frequently used in international politics and particularly during the Cold War.

In this case, Democrats and Republicans are dangerously pushing the U.S. economy back toward recession with the ultimate goal of either garnering public opinion in support of reducing federal spending or increasing taxes to fund current and future federal spending levels.

The Beltway economic blockade poised to strangle the nation is nothing more than a bare-fisted brawl of partisanship and power.

As the impact of sequestration becomes clearer, expect the numbers quoted above to change. How those percentages change will depend on which party can most effectively blame the other for the carnage.

Dr. Mangee’s comments are limited in scope, and he clearly buttressed his arguments. However, he steps outside his self-imposed boundaries when he writes: “Even more depressing than the congressional ineptness on display is the fact we have seen this coming for more than a year now.”

Both the president and Congress have seen this coming since 2011, Dr. Mangee. That “ineptness” is equally displayed in both the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government.

RONALD E. MCCALL

Collins

Second Amendment clear on America’s gun rights

The Second Amendment is succinctly encapsulated in the very declarative clause, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” It carries the same weight and limit on the federal government as does the opening sentence of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law ...”

Since 1935, automatic weapon ownership is prohibited, with very few exceptions. The “gun show loophole” bantered around by the anti-gun crowd applies to the very few booths manned by private people selling or trading their own guns. The vast majority of the exhibitors are legal gun store owners who all follow the law and apply for a National Instant Criminal Background Check System prior to any sale at a gun show, just as they would have to do in their own store. A NICS is not required for private sales, nor should it be.

There have been fewer mass shootings in the last year than previous years in spite of what you were told by the media.

The dubious gun confiscation program in Australia has been in effect now for more than a year, and violent crime has increased significantly in that year.

The Second Amendment was not written to protect gun sports and hunting, it was intended to prevent the federal government from disarming the people, enabling the government to oppress them.

RAY RIDEOUT

Savannah

Democrats use scare tactics to achieve their political objectives

Regarding sequestration, President Obama and his Democratic cohorts in Washington are trying to scare our nation by threatening to take actions that should not be taken.

All the cuts do not mandate what will be cut back, and anyone with any sense knows that the small cuts should be taken in the less critical areas, like the Department of Energy and Department of Education, not vital functions like police.